Year of the Environment Liverpool City Region

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Named in the recently published 25 Year Plan for the Environment1 by The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), 2019 will be a national 'Year of Green Action' for the UK. As part of this wider year the Liverpool City Region's Local Nature Partnership, Nature Connected, is taking the initiative and delivering a LCR focused Year of Action for the Environment. As an advisor on the environment and environmental issues to the Combined Authority the partnership is best placed to ensure our region meets both it's regulatory requirements and the expectations of the people of the Liverpool City Region in the context of rising concern and regard for the environment. This is the LCR Year of the Environment Mission Statement.

The 2019 Year of the Environment is a fantastic opportunity for individuals and organisations to get involved and come together to promote existing, extensive and excellent work being undertaken in the region as well as forging new cooperative partnerships to engage and communicate with people outside their usual circle of contacts.

The year will be loosely separated into eight environmental themes;

Air Quality

Climate Change and Resilience

Green Spaces, Habitats and Biodiversity

Connecting and Engaging with Nature

Health and Wellbeing

Sustainable Energy

Reduce Waste

Water

The idea is that these should act as points of highlight throughout the year. However, there is clearly a good amount of cross-over (and an excellent opportunity for joint delivery!).

For Merseyside BioBank, this is a fantastic opportunity to;

Showcase the superb work of local naturalists,

Underline the importance of evidence based decision taking (that's using your data to make decisions that impact the environment and wildlife).

Build partnerships with other organisations to promote awareness and improve our work.

Put on some exciting new core events for naturalists and partners.

So at the moment we are putting together a plan of events which we will be delivering as part of the LCR Year of the Environment umbrella. We are also looking for local groups who would like to engage, promote themselves and their species groups, and perhaps open up a couple of events to the public as well as partner organisations that would be help in facilitating events. I will be directly running a series of events and training throughout the year and will try to be available for as many of the naturalist led events as possible!

We will continue to provide updates on news and events in the run-up and throughout the year so keep an eye on our website or (probably better) get involved with the conversation on our social media, Facebook page, group and Twitter